The History and Philosophy of APA Style

by Rose Adamczyk & Samantha Schwartz

Why is APA style needed?

Uniform style across journals helps readers to navigate and access material more efficiently.

Scholars who experience uncertainty when writing may find the Manual a useful guide. For example, the "Nondiscriminatory Language" sections of the manual discourage authors from writing that is derogatory to women and minorities.

Why APA?

APA style describes rules for the preparation of manuscripts for writers and students in psychology. These rules cover areas such as the content and organization of a manuscript, writing style, references, and how to prepare a manuscript for publication.

APA style breaks papers up into sections, which helps to present information clearly and also allows readers to quickly find the information they need.

Why APA (cont.)

Abiding by the rules of APA style makes it easier for others to understand your writing. Your reader will be able to find what

they are looking for, and follow your writing more easily.

If you go on to publish your writing, the tasks of editors and publishers are simplified when everyone uses the same format.

Why APA (cont.)

An author writing for a publication must follow the rules established by the publisher to avoid inconsistencies among journal articles or book chapters.

For example, without rules of style, three different manuscripts might use sub-test, subtest, and Subtest in one issue of a journal or book. Although the meaning of the word is the same, such variations in style may distract or confuse the reader. (In this case, subtest is correct APA style)

The need for a consistent style becomes more apparent when complex material is presented, such as tables or statistics.

Who Uses APA Style?

Psychologists! Researchers, professors, students,

clinicians APA style is also used in many other

disciplines such as Sociology, Business, Economics, Nursing, Social Work, and Criminology.

Standardizing References

The APA style guide prescribes that the References section, bibliographies and other lists of names should be ordered by surname first, and mandates inclusion of surname prefixes.

For example, "Martin de Rijke" should be sorted as "De Rijke, M." and "Saif Al Falasi" should be sorted as "Al-Falasi, Saif." (The preference for Arabic names now is to hyphenate the prefix so that it remains with the surname.)

APA Style References

There are numerous places where you can look up the various rules on APA style. APA Publication Manual Concise Rules of APA Style Purdue’s Online Writing Lab (type “OWL

and APA” in a web search) The ASC has many handouts that cover

the most common uses of APA style.

What differentiates APA from other writing styles?

APA style is unlike other forms of writing that encourage more creativity and variation in language.

APA style often involves writing according to a "formula." Once you learn the formula, you can master

APA style. Adhering strictly to formatting rules, keeping sentence structure simple, and maintaining parallel structure when reporting study details and results helps to make your writing clear.

Examples

"The authors also had another interesting idea to investigate. They wanted to investigate whether marital conflict would predict behavior problems in children and they wanted to know if the effect was greater for girls than for boys, particularly when they examined two different age groups."

Can you think of some ways that you could make this paragraph more concise?

Examples

Avoid use of the words "proof" or "proves." One convention of scientific writing is that no single study can prove a theory or hypothesis. Rather, experts look for a convergence of the evidence from several studies. Instead of using the words "proof" or "proves," you can say:

The evidence suggests… Growing evidence provides support for... The study results provide support for the

hypothesis that… Several studies indicate (or suggest, or provide

support for) the idea that...

Reducing Gender Bias in Writing

While you should always be clear about the sex identity of your participants (if you conducted an experiment), so that gender differences are obvious, you should not use gender terms when they aren’t necessary.

Avoid using "he," "his" or "men" as generic terms applying to both sexes. Replacing "he" with "he or she," "she or he," "he/she," "(s)he," "s/he," or alternating between "he" and "she" are not recommended because they are awkward and can distract the reader. The pronouns "he" or "she" inevitably cause the reader to think of only that gender, which may not be what you intend.

Avoiding gendered pronouns

Rephrase the sentence Use plural nouns or plural pronouns –

this way you can use "they" or "their" Replace the pronoun with an article –

instead of "his," use "the" Drop the pronoun – many sentences

sound fine if you just omit the troublesome "his" from the sentence

Replace the pronoun with a noun such as "person," "individual," "child," "researcher," etc.

Can I use “I” in this paper?

APA style writing rarely uses the first person voice ("I studied...").

Use the third person or passive voice constructions when writing in APA style ("The study showed...") unless you are co-authoring a paper with at least one other person, in which case you can use "we." ("Our findings included...") In general, you should highlight the research, not the researchers.

Passive Voice

While passive voice allows you to rephrase sentences so as to avoid using the personal pronoun, its use should be limited.

Use of passive voice is acceptable when you want the focus to be placed on the object or recipient of the action, rather than on the actor (APA, 2001). For example, “The professor was fired” emphasizes

the importance of the person fired. “The passive voice suggests individuals are acted

on instead of being actors (“the students completed the survey” is preferable to “the students were given the survey” or “the survey was administered to the students”) (APA, 2005).

Comma Use

Commas should be used to set off elements of a sentence that, if removed, would not change the grammatical structure and meaning of the sentence. Rose and Sam, two assistants from the

Academic Support Center, prepared a presentation on APA style.

Commas should also be used to separate two independent clauses that are joined by a conjunction (APA, 2005). Rose’s dirty clothes covered the bedroom floor,

but the rest of the apartment was neat and tidy.

Colloquial Expressions

It is important to avoid the use of slang and figures of speech in professional writing.

Examples? Also, avoid the use of approximations.

For example, “quite a large part” or “very few” mean different things to different people.

“Approximation weakens statements, especially those describing empirical observations” (APA, 2005, p.6).

Parallel Sentence Structure

Parallel sentence structure involves “using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance” (Purdue OWL, 2004).

These ideas are usually combined using conjunctions.

Incorrect: The participants were told to make themselves comfortable, to read the instructions, and that they should ask about anything they did not understand.

Parallel structure

Correct: The participants were told to make themselves comfortable, to read the instructions, and to ask about anything they did not understand.

References

Citing your work helps you to monitor the development of an idea as you conduct research of the literature.

Viewing your reference page as a whole allows you to see where your sources are coming from and if any biases exist in the research. For example, if the majority of your articles are

from a single journal, you may be presenting information from a limited perspective, which may in turn limit the strength of your arguments.

Avoiding Plagiarism

What is plagiarism? Failing to cite quotes and borrowed ideas Failing to enclose borrowed language in quotes Failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your own

words

Difference between paraphrasing and summarizing Paraphrasing is using your own words to express

someone else’s ideas Summarizing is taking only the most essential points

of someone else’s work (shorter, condensed version).

TIP: First absorb the meaning of the passage, then put it into your own words. Avoiding reading and typing simultaneously.

Plagiarism (continued)

-More tips on how to prevent plagiarism: Put the source aside and try to re-write

the main points from memory When taking notes, put them into your

own words (do not just change words here and there)

When paraphrasing, you must alter the sentence structure as well as putting things into your own words